"Rollin' Stone" is a blues song recorded by Muddy Waters in 1950. It is his interpretation of "Catfish Blues", a Delta blues that dates back to 1920s Mississippi. Although it did not appear in the national record charts, "Still a Fool", recorded by Muddy Waters a year later using the same arrangement and melody, reached number nine on the Billboard R&B chart. "Rollin' Stone" has been recorded by a variety of artists, and both Rolling Stone magazine and the rock group the Rolling Stones are named after the song.

In 1928, Jim Jackson recorded "Kansas City Blues Parts 3 and 4", a follow-up to his highly successful "Jim Jackson's Kansas City Blues Parts 1 and 2". Jackson's lyrics included:

I wished I was a catfish swimming down in the sea
I'd have some good woman fishing after me

Several other early songs also explored variations on the catfish and/or fishing theme. In 1941, Tommy McClennan and his sometime partner Robert Petway each recorded versions of the song. Petway's was the first to be titled "Catfish Blues" and is sometimes cited as the basis for Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone". However, according to one biographer "They'd been singing "Catfish Blues" for years in the Delta, but it never sounded like "Rollin' Stone".

"Rollin' Stone" has been identified (along with "Walkin' Blues", the single's B-side) as one of the first songs that Muddy Waters learned to play and an early favorite. The words refer to the traditional proverb, "A rolling stone gathers no moss".

Called "a brooding, minor-hued drone piece", "Rollin' Stone" is a mid- to slow-tempo blues notated in 4/4 time in the key of E. Although the instrumental section uses the IV and V chords, the vocal sections remain on the I chord, giving the song a modal quality often found in Delta blues songs. In addition to the traditional catfish verses, Waters added:

Well my mother told my father just before I was born
'I got a boy child comin', gonna be, gonna be a rollin' stone
Sho' enough he's a rollin' stone

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